A lopsided score in Vancouver will play second fiddle to the debate surrounding who was in net for it.
Welcome to the storyline that is destined to dot the Calgary Flames‘ season.
In hindsight, it’s easy to second-guess Thursday’s decision to start Dustin Wolf in back-to-back games.
After all, the Calder finalist wasn’t at his best in a 5-1 loss to the Canucks.
But the reality is that starting their star netminder made the most sense, as it’s what gave the Flames the best chance to win in Vancouver Thursday night.
While load management is important over the course of a season, what Ryan Huska cares about most is putting the best lineup out every night.
No, it doesn’t mean he’s going to squeeze 70+ starts out of the 24-year-old netminder like the Flames did with Miikka Kiprusoff a remarkable seven seasons in a row.
It means he has faith that the kid who has logged heavy workloads throughout his young career is certainly capable of being rested enough the last six months to start off in two tough assignments, the team needed solid goaltending to count on.
It also means Devin Cooley has a long way to go to inspire faith in the coaching staff.
Without the luxury of a proven backup like Dan Vladar to turn to, Huska chose not to throw Cooley to the wolves, just yet.
Cooley is unproven at the NHL level and did little to inspire confidence during the pre-season, making it awfully hard for a coach to march him into one of the most hostile arenas in the league to play an arch-rival on their opening night.
The game was too important for that.
Huska just kicked the can down the road by six days, as Cooley will certainly get the start in Utah next Wednesday, one day after the Flames host Vegas.
Until then, expect Wolf to start in the home opener Saturday afternoon against St. Louis, followed by Tuesday’s visit from the Golden Knights.
Before the hue and cry begins on whether he should start just a day-and-a-half later, consider the fact that the Flames stayed overnight in Vancouver after Thursday’s game, giving Wolf and the lads a solid night’s sleep and a full day to recover before Saturday.
With a pair of back-to-backs included in the Flames’ first five games, anyone who thought Cooley would get two starts in that span hasn’t been paying attention.
“Early in the year there should be tons of energy in the tank,” said Huska of his goaltending decision following the loss in which his team allowed four in the final frame.
“I wouldn’t say it was Dustin’s best game, but he always gives us a chance to win.”
Indeed, despite generating very little in the way of high danger scoring chances, the Flames entered the third period down just 1-0.
Like in Edmonton a night earlier, they remained in the game because of Wolf.
Tired from a gritty 4-3 comeback win over the Oilers, the Flames arrived at their Vancouver hotel after 2 a.m. PT, meaning the netminding needed to be stellar for the Flames to have a chance later that night.
Discussions with Wolf over how he felt following a 32-save effort, that included seven shootout stops, concluded he would be ready to go.
After stopping 15 of 16 over the first two periods Thursday, things fell apart in the third when Wolf and the Flames were victimized by a scary shot off of Kevin Bahl’s head. As the towering defenceman crumpled to the ice, he took with him Wolf, whose focus was on Bahl’s condition. Meanwhile, the puck bounced right back onto Filip Chytil’s stick for an easy rebound into an open net.
“It was an unfortunate play on their second goal,” said Huska, who had no update on Bahl, who skated off on his own and didn’t return, clearly shaken by the incident.
“That was a tough one to give up.”
From there the Canucks rallied, beating Wolf with a breakaway finish, a Jonathan Lekkerimaki one-timer in close and a Brock Boeser laser off Brayden Pachal’s stick.
Combine that with being beaten cleanly by a long shot from Kiefer Sherwood in the first period and it was clearly not Wolf’s finest outing.
But the loss wasn’t on him.
from Sportsnet.ca https://ift.tt/lgxAVm1
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